Luis Gonzalez, global supply chain director of Proximo Spirits, a subsidiary of Becle, relates the company's search for a decision-intelligence tool, and its partnership with Aera Technology.

Spanning 11 generations, Proximo Spirits has experienced double-digit growth over the past 20 years. It’s now part of a $2.5-billion company operating in 85 countries, selling high-quality spirits such as tequilas, whiskeys and rums. That rapid level of growth, the result of both organic sales increases as well as acquisitions, led it to seek a solution that would allow for rapid response to changes in demand across all markets, Gonzalez says.

Long lead times and a need for large amounts of cash flow to support operations meant that the old manual methods of demand planning were not adequate to the task. “There was no way to survive if we continued to do what we had been doing with Excel,” Gonzalez says.

The company needed a modern-day tool for decision intelligence. In evaluating possible providers, it looked for three qualities: flexibility, scalability and the ability to produce quick near-term results, he says. Beyond that, Proximo was looking to acquire a platform that would manage its supply chain over the long term, “from farm to glass.” 

The choice was Aera Technology. “It was very important to have a partner that could support us,” Gonzalez says.

Implementation began with a “discovery” phase, in which the company mapped its practices in order to address the “small nuances” of the Proximo supply chain. Especially challenging was the need to predict demand in an environment of constantly changing regulations across countries. It also sought a way to improve its master data for the entire operation.

Aera delivered the promised results within six to eight months, a result that Gonzalez hadn’t previously seen in his years of implementing forecasting tools.